Adventures in Food

Cooking in Mundri can be full of the unexpected and is often a learning experience. Fuel prices have been very high recently (as much $70 per gallon in some areas of Juba last week), and we have not yet been able to find propane for our stove. In an effort to conserve the little propane we have left, we got some local charcoal stoves. It was my night to cook so I decided to make one of our Sudanese favorites, greens with ground nut paste and rice.


First I had to figure out how to light the charcoal. Thankfully Cecilia was cooking at the Bishop's compound next door and she gave me a few hot coals. After I walked over with my stove piled high with charcoal, she looked at me and taught me lesson number one. Little food, little charcoal. =) She rearranged the charcoal between the two stoves and I put a lot back in the bag for another day. I don't know what the outcome of the meal would have been with out her help! She also offered a few suggestions for preparing the greens. Thank you, Cecilia, for making several necessary corrections to my Sudanese cooking technique!

Success! A meal cooked without propane from all locally available ingredients. It didn't taste exactly like the Sudanese greens with ground nut paste that we all love, but it was pretty close.

Today I headed to the market to pick up a few things for Karen who is cooking tonight, and I spotted a fruit I didn't quite recognize. Fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce so we usually buy what we can get even if we aren't sure what it is exactly. I got home and cut one open and this is what I found. Definitely unexpected. It tastes like SweeTarts. It is good if you just suck on the seed, but we made into juice for dinner and it was EXCELLENT!

If anyone can identify this fruit, let me know!

Last year our team bought what we thought was a watermelon and when we cut it in half it turned out to be a giant cucumber. =)